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Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers admits his side never got going after seeing their unbeaten record ended by Southampton.

Last Updated: 22/09/13 8:36am

Brendan Rodgers: Disappointed with performance against Southampton

Dejan Lovren's second-half header earned Southampton a famous 1-0 victory to condemn Liverpool to their first defeat of the campaign.

Rodgers had no complaints with the result, conceding Liverpool struggled to impose themselves during the 90 minutes against a well-organised Southampton.

"I just thought we never got going really," Rodgers told Sky Sports. "I thought in terms of our tempo and technically we were nowhere near the level we have been at and it is obviously very, very disappointing having not lost for quite a long time in the league, I think it was March and funnily enough against Southampton.

"We have been on a real tremendous run but today, from the first whistle, we never really got going and we suffered from that."

Rodgers admitted he was disappointed to concede from a corner, with chances few and far between in the game, but has backed his side to recover from the setback.

"It is disappointing to concede the goal from a corner," added Rodgers. "I think when you don't play so well and there wasn't so many chances they created actually in the game so to lose the goal from a corner is a double blow really.

"We will recover from it, the players have been outstanding in this little run and we are just disappointed we couldn't put on a performance today and we are always, always disappointed when we don't win here at Anfield."

Rodgers was pragmatic on the call from referee Neil Swarbrick not to award the home side a penalty in the first half after Daniel Sturridge appeared to be clipped by Lovren inside the box.

"It looked that way [a penalty], he nicked it past the guy who obviously has not got any contact on the ball.

"Sometimes we will get them, but obviously today we didn't.

"We huffed and puffed today, the speed in our game was not up to the level we normally have, but we will go again."

Rodgers also defended his decision to start with four central defenders, with Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho starting at right-back and left-back respectively.

"It didn't help we have got a number of injuries and Kolo and Sakho did terrifically, and it was case of trying to make do with the players we have got," continued Rodgers.

"Jose Enrique has got a wee bit of a problem with his knee so we are trying to manage him through these next few games and we decided today was maybe the day to do that."